The Price of a Soul - Cuphead 2nd anniversary fic
by 28-characters-later
Summary: The reason a certain carnation sold his soul. includes an oc and Cagney as a child


The young orange carnation burrowed back into the garden. He hadn't been gone all that long, had he, so he was sure his sister wouldn't be _that _worried.

As he popped up from the dirt and began shaking soil from his tiny petals, he expected to get chewed out for leaving the garden, the usual; 'it's not safe out there', 'you could have been hurt!' but instead there was nothing. Maybe she wasn't home yet and he'd gotten away with his little sneak-out?

However as soon as the tiny flower passed a bush, he froze.

His sister lay on the ground. Her deep purple stem and leafy arms were drained of color and had dry brown spots. Although her petals normally drooped, now they were lying flat and seemed almost deflated. The darker purple was also pale and the lighter purple was covered in the brown spots. She was still breathing, but it was very shallow.

"Violet!" Cagney rushed to his sister's side. "Vi, Vi what happened?! Y-you were fine this morning…"

Violet coughed and managed to crack an eye open. Instead of a bright purple it was a pale grey. "C… Cagney, sweetie, don't get too close. I don't wanna get you sick." Her voice sounded weak; he could barely hear her. "I-I just need to rest. I'll be ok…" She closed her eyes. The only sign she was still alive was her shallow raspy breath.

Panicking and desperate, Cagney scampered from the garden, begging anyone he came across for help.

In his hurry, Cagney crashed into the leg of an enormous, purple-suited man with dice for a head. Because Cagney didn't get out of the garden much, he didn't recognize him as the Devil's right-hand-man, King Dice.

Cagney gripped a pant-leg with his small leaves. "Please help me! My sister is very sick!"

King Dice crouched down to the young plant, feigning concern. "Oh no, that's terrible! Say, I might know someone who could help."

Cagney wiped his eyes with a leaf. "Thank you, mister!"

King Dice bent down and yanked the flower-child from the ground. Cagney winced as his roots snagged, but luckily nothing ripped.

Cagney stayed low in the hands as he was carried from one end of Inkwell Isles to the other. He had never been so high up or far from home in his life.

Approaching the casino, Cagney ducked even lower. "My friend Psy warned me about this place, are you sure someone here can help?"

"Absolutely."

Cagney was carried through the large, brightly-lit place and finally set back down just inside some back office. The little flower looked up at the large, intimidating desk before him and jumped when the door shut behind him.

"What brings a little weed out of the woods?"

Cagney's attention was brought back to the desk. The tall creature was covered in black fur with long, sharp horns and piercing yellow eyes. The young carnation was too intimidated to even speak.

The Devil raised an eyebrow while the plant kid stuttered out meaningless sounds. After a moment The Devil started to show the young flower out. "If there's nothing you need…"

It was only then that Cagney seemed to finally find his voice. "W-wait no, my- my sister is really sick!"

The Devil rolled his eyes. "Sucks, kid. I'm not a plant hospital."

Cagney's petals sagged. "But… but the purple dice guy said-"

"Still not a plant hospital, kid."

He'd come so far, he couldn't be thrown out just yet. "Please, she's my only family! I'll do anything to keep her from dying!"

The devil's eye glimmered. This seemed to be what he was waiting for. "Anything, you say?" He pulled a contract out of seemingly nowhere and extended it. "All you need to do is sign here." The bottom line glowed.

A pen appeared near the little plant. All of this was making him really uncomfortable. "What is it?"

"A contract. Stating how your sister will be saved. And the payment."

Somehow, Cagney's petals wilted lower. "I- I don't have anything!"

The devil chucked. "It's nothing like that. It's something you have but don't need; your soul." That sounded important! Cagney opened his mouth to say so but the devil continued. "Think of it as… at some point I'll ask you for a favour. And all you'll need to do, is do it." That didn't sound right… "You don't want your sister to die, do you?"

Cagney shook his head, grabbing the pen. "No! But, but how can I do any favour? I'm … small."

The devil grinned. "Oh, don't worry about that. I'm sure you'll grow to be much taller."

That didn't answer his question, but he didn't want his sister to die. He'd been away from home for a while now. This guy was making things just appear, maybe he could help Violet? Cagney signed his name on the contract. As soon as he finished, it rolled up and disappeared. The pen popped out of sight too.

The Devil chuckled. "Now get out. Your sister will be fine."

The little flower had no idea how any of this helped his sister, but he did want to get as far away from this room as possible.

It took a while for him to burrow all the way back to Inkwell Isle 1. When he did reach their garden, he was afraid of what he would find, but Violet was up and moving around. She looked normal! All of her shades of purple were as bright as ever, with no more brown spots looking like rot.

Cagney started crying again as he practically flew into his sister's arms, clinging.

The older flower hugged her brother back, though she was concerned and confused. "Cagney, what's wrong? - Where have you been? Did you get hurt?"

The little flower unburied his face from his sister's stem enough to look up at her, tears still leaking out. "You, you were sick! You couldn't move and were all brown – don't you remember?"

Violet sighed and patted her brother on the head, ruffling his petals. "Sounds more like someone had a nightmare."

"But, but…" Cagney trailed off. Maybe it didn't matter. His sister was still alive, and whatever that guy did somehow fixed her. He tried to put the contract from his mind. What was a soul anyway? Cagney just hoped whatever it was he had sold in order to save Violet wasn't something important. He sure didn't want to get into trouble with Vi. Oh well! Today had turned out fine after all.


End file.
